Continuing their season rebound, the Lobos dominated Utah State on Saturday to move to 3-0 in the conference and re-establish themselves as contenders for the conference title. They don’t get a lot of time to rest on their laurels, though, as they head to Pit West to take on UNLV this Tuesday. The Rebels have had almost the exact opposite start to the conference season as the Lobos and will likely be a team desperately searching for a win.

Utah State Game Recap

The Lobos have had occasional issues with starting the game out on the right foot, so Coach Neal has made it a recent point of emphasis for them to come out with energy so they get off to a good start. Well, that seemed to pay off against Utah State. The Lobos scored on their first five possessions to jump out to an early 10-4 lead. The Aggies were still hanging around though, trading baskets for a bit until a Chris Smith three-pointer cut the Lobo lead to 17-12 with 13:57 left in the half. Then, the Lobos went off and Utah State didn’t score again until a Jalen Moore free throw made the score 31-13 with 5:21 left in the half. When the dust settled at halftime, the Lobos were up 43-18 and were in complete control of the game.

So how did they pull off such a great half? For one, they shot 19-30 from the field for 63.3%, with 12 of those makes coming from dunks and layups. But really, I think the main thing that drove that half was their great defense. They held the Aggies to 24.1% shooting in the half, including a 3-16 performance from beyond the arc, only allowed them to collect 10 rebounds, as opposed to the 25 the Lobos pulled down, and managed to steal the ball from them 7 times. In other words, they didn’t let the Aggies do much of anything. The 43 points they scored is good, but that doesn’t seem to be out of the ordinary any more. However, holding any team to only 18 points is stellar and doing that to a team who still figures to be in the upper half of the conference is nothing short of impressive.

The second half wasn’t as impressive, but it didn’t need to be. The main goal was for the Lobos to stay focused, keep executing, and not allow Utah State to get back into the game. And they did just that, not allowing the Aggies to come within 20 points until there was only 1:33 left in the game. Yeah, Utah State outscored UNM 41-34 in the second half, but the game never felt like it was in question and the Lobos did kind of let off the gas towards the end. At the end of the day, the Lobos came away with an impressive 77-59 victory to move to 3-0 in the conference.

Players of the Game

1. Tim Williams (30 points on the season): It seemed like going into this game that Utah State didn’t really have an answer for Tim Williams and that’s pretty much how it played out. Tim went 9-13 from the field and 3-5 from the free throw line for 21 points while also collecting 8 boards, 2 blocks, an assist, and a steal. He’s going to be a major mismatch for a lot of teams in this conference and if he can keep putting up lines like this one, the Lobos are going to beat a lot of those teams.
2. Elijah Brown (30 points on the season): Elijah is letting the game come to him instead of trying to force things and the team is better for that. There were times earlier in the season when the ball would kind of stick with him to varying results. The last few games, however, he’s done a much better job of knowing when to take over himself and when to act as a distributor. His line tonight, with 18 points on only 10 shots, 6 boards, 5 assists, and only two turnovers, is the sort of performance that shows why he’ll likely be on the shortlist for all-conference honors.
3. Cullen Neal (15 points on the season): Cullen didn’t have a great shooting night, but he really set the tone for the game. He played aggressively and passionately, but he still managed to play under control. When he plays like that, he becomes the Cullen that we, and Noodles, want to see. The guy that can take over games at times and make his teammates look better at the same time. Even better, he’s a lot of fun to watch when he plays like that.

A Little About UNLV

It’s been a wild week for the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, as they dropped two winnable games to move to 0-3 in conference play and saw their coach “resign”. The athletic director then looked down the bench, saw a former D-1 coach (who won the WCC coach of the year award just four years ago!), a well-liked former UNLV player with several years of coaching experience at the collegiate and professional levels, a former UNM assistant who has spent several years as an associate head coach, and then instead chose the guy whose best qualification is that he was the head coach of a very good high school team. That high school happens to be named after one of the, if not the biggest booster of the UNLV athletics program. I wonder if that had anything to do with it…

So, UNLV is now lead by Todd Simon who will be coaching his first game at the collegiate level against the Lobos. He inherits a team that is loaded with talented players, but hasn’t really coalesced this year (just like, oh, pretty much every year that Dave Rice was the head coach). So, they’ve been a high-variance team, collecting nice wins against Indiana and Oregon, but dropping three straight games to start out the conference season. The Rebels feel like the sort of team that can beat anyone in the conference, but could just as easily lose to anyone in the conference.

Their best player has been Patrick McCaw, the 6’7” sophomore guard who is currently the team’s leading scorer at 13.0 points per game. He’s also been averaging 3.6 boards, 4.0 assists, and 2.9 steals per game while shooting 36.5% on his three point attempts. He’s been solid all around, but those steals are what really pop out. He has almost 20 more steals on the season than anyone else in the conference and his steal rate is currently the 7^th best in the country. He’s also more than capable of taking a steal back for an easy transition dunk, so the Lobos are going to have to make sure to take care of the ball unless they want McCaw to audition for SportsCenter.

This year’s big recruit for them, and there’s been at least one for the past several seasons, is the 7-foot center, Stephen Zimmerman. Zimmerman is a skilled big man who has some nice moves down low, can shoot the ball from the perimeter, and has proven to be a very good offensive rebounder. He’s averaging 9.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game, which isn’t dominating, but is still very good for a freshman. From the few times I’ve watched him play, his main issues seem to be that he tries to do too much at times, which leads him to forcing some bad shots, and he could stand to get a little strong, which basically means that he’s a freshman big man.

For the rest of the main players, Ike Nwamu is a 6’5” graduate transfer who is built like a tank. He’s averaging 9.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game and, after McCaw, is the next most prolific three point shooter on the team. He started most of the games this season, but has recently seen that spot taken by Derrick Jones, a 6’7” freshman who is averaging 9.6 points and 3.2 boards per game. He’s not as much of a perimeter shooter, but he’s been really good at finishing at the rim and drawing fouls. Jerome Seagears is a 6’1” graduate transfer who has been playing point guard for the Rebels while averaging 9.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game. He hasn’t been a particularly good three point shooter, only shooting 27.8%, but that hasn’t stopped him from taking 3.6 attempts per game. The 6’8” sophomore Dwayne Morgan has been the starting power forward for most of the season, but he tends to split time with Ben Carter. Carter is actually probably the better of the two, as he’s averaging 9.4 points and 6.1 rebounds compared to Morgan’s 4.1 and 4.3 while rating better defensively, but we’ll probably see a decent dose of both of them down low.

As a whole, UNLV has been an elite defensive team, ranking 8^th in defensive efficiency in the country. They do that by not allowing their opponents to shoot well down low and by being one of the best teams at blocking shots and getting steals. If there’s any weaknesses in their defense, they maybe allow too many free throws and they are only slightly above average at defending the three ball. On offense, they’ve generally been bad, ranking 256^th in offensive efficiency in the country. That’s mostly because they’re just as bad as UNM at turning the ball over, but they don’t shoot as well to make up for it. This could end up being an ugly game and somewhat of a track meet, which would play more towards UNLV’s strengths, I think. If the Lobos can take care of the ball, though, they should have a pretty good chance of coming out of Vegas with a win.

Scattered Thoughts

• Because we can’t stop talking about turnovers these days, here are two true statements: the Lobos had their best turnover rate in any game since they last played NMSU and the Lobos turned the ball over at a higher rate than their season average. They turned the ball over on 21.7% of their possessions in this game, which is slightly above their season average of 21.4%, but it still felt like an improvement for a couple of reasons. First, they played so well on offense otherwise, especially in the first half, that it never seemed like an issue. Second, the turnovers didn’t lead to easy points for USU like they had against other teams. The Lobos only allowed 8 points off of their 15 turnovers, which is a massive improvement from the 31 points they allowed off of their 24 turnovers to Fresno State. It’s certainly true that not all turnovers are created equal, so if you’re going to have them, you want the type that doesn’t lead to an easy transition basket. That’s going to be especially true against teams like UNLV and SDSU.
• Dane Kuiper got some significant minutes for the first time in his career and he looked as confident and comfortable as I’ve ever seen out of him. He happens to play a position that the Lobos are deep at, which is one of the reasons why we haven’t seen much of him on the court, but now that the team is being forced to play more four-guard lineups, I suspect that he’ll get a lot more run. This may or may not be a breakout kind of game for him, but I do know that having a 6’7” wing who can defend, dribble, pass, and shoot coming off of the bench can only be a good thing. Plus, every time that I see him, Anthony, or Jordan have a good performance, it not only makes me excited about the future of the program, it makes me excited about the rest of this season.
• Things obviously work this way, but imagine for a moment that the trip to Hawaii never happened. What would be your impression of this team? It’s interesting to me how different my thoughts are about this team with and without that week taken into consideration. Without it, I would think of them as being the top team and the conference and, aside from the occasional slip-up, I would go into every conference game expecting them to win. With it, it’s hard to keep from thinking that they might have another meltdown at some point. However, the further we get from that disastrous trip and the more the team keeps improving and, more importantly, winning games, the more and more I start to write that trip off as just a really, really bad week for the team and just an anomaly.

Prediction

I’m starting to get a better feel for what to expect out of the Lobos, but I have no idea what to expect out of UNLV. Will they galvanize around their new coach in an attempt to prove that their season still has some life to it? Or will they just fall apart with all of the apparent dysfunction. So, I’ll pick the Lobos to win 80-77, but I’m ready for just about anything out of this one.

Game Info

What: UNM Lobos (10-6, 3-0) at UNLV Rebels (9-7, 0-3)

Where: Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV

When: Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 8pm MT

Radio: 770 KOB

TV: CBS Sports Network